Review: The Language of Souls by Lena Goldfinch

A fast-paced tale of adventure and soul-stirring romance that will leave you breathless.

Solena trespasses into hostile territory to search for a rare herb to cure the grandfather she loves. When a young enemy soldier captures her and she's accused of being a spy, she discovers just how much she’s risked.

As a soldier, Rundan struggles to please his father, a ruthless army commander. When his father orders him to take the beautiful trespasser to the royal courts, where she’ll surely be tried and executed, Rundan is plagued by an inconvenient desire to protect her.

The handsome young soldier confuses Solena. First, he cruelly captures her, and then treats her with uncommon kindness. When he risks his life to save hers, she fears she may have risked more than her life on her journey…she may have lost her heart.

My Review:

So, The Language of Souls, is a little gem of a novella. It's not the full out length of a book, but it is doesn't need to be. This novella has so much to it. It is heart-warming, intense, complex, and a really fast pace read. And overall, despite the setting, which is not light hearted, it was really adorable, because the main characters were such lovely people. It felt like a fairy tale.

The world building in this novella is so impressive. I haven't read too many novella's so I always am concerned with the world building when I do read one, because I worry if the author has enough space to develop their world. As this story was set in a fantasy world, I wondered if I would get enough info on the world, in order to really see it in my mind. Here to inform you that I did. I loved the idea of having these enemy territories, Oden and Toranni, and their respective people not getting along at all, and the friction that is created between their people when they do encounter each other. Each territory had its intricate traditions and rituals and it had like an ancient feel to it. Like you were being taken to an ancient, secret world. And the clothing described on the characters, also kinda gave me that impression of ancient-ness with the characters walking around in armor or flowing tunics. THAT is the vibe in this story. It's very fantasy and fairy-tale-ish.

The main characters, Solena, a healer from Toranni, and Rundan, a young Oden soldier - were SO cute, you guys. Like, I can't. Solena had all the makings of a fairy tale princess with how sweet she was and her undying love for her grandpa. And poor Rundan was so dutiful and just dying to impress his commander/army dad who was a jerk. He was, like, a fairy tale prince. I mean, neither of Solena or Rundan were royalty per se, but they had that prince, princess vibe going on. Solena just has this beautiful soul and willingness to help, a selflessness, that is great. This naturally grabs Rundan's attention, a soldier from enemy territory. While Rundan, on the outside looks like this collected and stern soldier, but really is unlike his other Oden soldiers. He is super humane, intelligent, decent - despite - having a nasty father, who treats him poorly.

Their romance was ADORBS. Yes, I said, adorbs, but I had to, because they were beyond adorable, Solena and Rundan were so cute and sweet. Even amongst dangerous situations.

At it's core, this novella, is all about people finding the courage to be themselves, to go beyond stereotypes and managing to see the true essence of others. Rundan and Solena had a lot of hurdles to get over. They were from enemy territories, they didn't speak the same language, Rundan took Solena captive when she stepped in his territory. As you guys can imagine, the conditions for these two getting along were very bad, but they manage to overcome that and what ensues is really cute.

Now, I do have one complaint: This novella should have been longer. I wanted more. There should be a sequel to this. Something. BUT there is soo much more that can be developed from the Toranni and Oden world. Like, I wanted to see how Rundan and Solena would work together, being that they were from enemy territories. I wanted to see how Rundan would confront his ruthless dad and how Solena would further manage Rundan with her people. And I also wondered how the people in each territory would react to Rundan and Solena coming together. As I said, there is a lot there, that can be further developed.